Architecture is hard to put into words. I can't do it enough justice with a paragraph, a sketch, a model, or an actual building. Architecture, in it's broadest sense, is an experience where for one minute, one year, or one lifetime you're sheltered by a built condition set to be the backdrop to your life. Physically architecture exerts a presence and works as a mediator between people and their environment. However, architecture is more than just a material form, it also serves to foster ties with a place, time, or people. It's about our perception of life events, or things as they appear in our experience, thus the meanings things have in our realities. The ways in which the built context facilitates the phenomena of our existences is an infinite number that is variable to every conceivable condition. With that being said, to describe architecture is not something easily accomplished, but I believe it is the materialization we give to ideas so that we can frame our every day endeavors.
In defining architecture in that way, the role of the architect is even more critical. There are an unlimited number of experiences to be had, problems to solve, and ideas to try out. There is also art to be made, space to be defined, and interactions to be cultured. An architect's role should be to explore these avenues. Whether their motives be individually driven or based on the community around them, architects should work for people. They have been tasked with creating a framework for people to live their lives, whether that's recognized with all the glamour and fame you can bestow on a structure or a simple, unknown volunteer act. Architecture is for the betterment of peoples lives, and it is the architects role to design them.
